Wow... October 2021.. I have been extremely neglectful of this topic..
A fact I intend to rectify starting today..
Anywho. This mod is still being worked on.. as witnessed by others in the community. I am of course only one person and always looking for help.. Starfox and I the last 5 days or so have been working on taking the mod in a Star Fleet Battles/Star Fleet Command style direction regarding ship stats, weapon damage, weapon types and vessel movement.. I have been exhaustingly testing updated physics for ship movement.. as trying to simulate with weapon ranges, and firing delays.. how a real player would play Starfleet Command, but have it automated by Armada's game engine. It hasn't been easy.. but we have been slowly approaching what we think would be some legitimate results in this regard. I also have some updates to several models, as well as a brand new ship class that has never been made for Star Trek Armada.. anywhere..
I present the Decatur Class Strike Cruiser.. designed as a fast response ship, and slightly more heavily armed than the famous Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser, the Decatur Class ships would be dispatched where the scientific facilities and resources of the Constitution Class were not needed. These ships were intended to show hostile forces, that the Federation could, and would defend itself if the need arose. These ships were built late in the 2260s as the Constitution was fast approaching its next refit cycle. Many of the Decatur Class ships were refitted into the more familiar Belknap Class Strike Cruisers (Also a first for Star Trek Armada) and as these ships were slowly refitted, you won't have the opportunity to build them from a shipyard (maybe) However, you could see one or two populate the map as the Federation will have reserve forces available to warp in if the need arises..
I also took the opportunity to redo my Constitution Class textures, for what feels like the millionth time, and actually took the time to correct many of the flaws in Lord Schtupps original Connie model that mine uses.. for the longest time, i was using parts to accurize the Conny made by Wiley Coyote, and although exceptional, drove the poly count for an older mass produced ship up way to high.. Thanks to our very own Majestic.. I was able to get a bridge and lower sensor dome for the Connie that is not only extremely well built but very accurate, at a fraction of the polies of the previous version.. I also have Majestic to thank for building me the secondary hull for Decatur. It was built so well that it was only a little minor tweaking (cause lets face it, that's all I'm capable of doing from a 3D modeling perspective) to get it perfect. The Decatur also uses the same bridge and sensor dome pieces as the Connie.. so in a way the only parts of this model that he didn't build were the saucer section and warp engines.. so thank you Majestic not only for quickly and efficiently building me those parts, but also for this excellent site upgrade for me to be able to show off some of the work that ive been doing. And now without further ado.. here are some images of these ships.. some will be ingame shots and some will be MS3D so you can see her without the game's rendering engine...
